Britain's ultimate supermum Mary King rides for gold at home Olympics

There was more than maternal pride involved when Mary King won the second biggest winner's cheque in the history of Eventing.

For Jill King, well into her
seventies and still driving her daughter and the horses up and down
Britain and across Europe, the 150,000 US dollar first prize in the HSBC
FEI Classics series has meant a planned upgrade to the horsebox.

All smiles: Mary King with children Emily and Freddie

'Mum would happily drive even the most clapped-out lorry,' King told Sportsmail.

'But, of course, she is delighted at the prospect.'

The benefits for both rider and chauffeur are obvious as the 51-year-old mother of two prepares for London 2012 and what will be her sixth Olympics, equalling the record of javelin legend Tessa Sanderson.

Star turns: Mary King and Imperial Cavalier at the 2011 Badminton Horse Trials

A fitting end to a glorious career, you might think, especially if home advantage helps secure what everyone in the sport considers would be a deserving gold medal.

King would be 55 in Rio de Janiero in 2016. Surely a case of too long in both the tooth and the saddle.

Not if Freddie, her 12-year-old son, a promising midfielder at the Exeter City School of Excellence, has his way.

'It's funny, Freddie used to nag me about giving up,' King says.

'We used to say London would be a good time. Then he heard that Brazil had won the bid. Suddenly, it was mummy you have got to go there. So, I probably will.'

That would suit her daughter, Emily, just fine.

The 15-year-old made her debut in the British Junior team at the European Championships last month and extraordinarily, despite being the youngest in the competition, would have won gold at first time of trying had she knocked down one instead of two fences in the deciding show jumping phase.

Reining champ: Call Again Cavalier and Mary King on their way to winning the 'Open' during The Festival of British Eventing at Gatcombe Park, Gloucestershire.

Already there is discussion among the family, and beyond, about if and when mother and daughter might make history by competing together in the same British team.

'In Rio,' the teenager barks with the boldness and confidence of youth, as if the prospect of being involved in a piece of Olympic history were an every-day event.

Out of luck: Star Appeal and King in Sydney, 2000

There follows one of those blasé horsey stories - terrifying to the uninitiated, almost routine to equestrian folk - about daughter lying motionless in a field with what turned out to be a broken pelvis and mother running around looking for her camera.

'What's she like, I am lying there and she's searching for her camera,' Emily mocks.

The falls and the breaks rather come with the territory.

It is part of the Mary King legend that 10 years ago she broke her neck while riding alone only to raise the alarm by walking back to the yard holding her damaged neck in her hands.

She was probably smiling at the time. Nothing and no one have yet managed to knock the smile from her always eager face.

Two months ago, King spent several hours in a German hospital after suffering the kind of gasp-inducing heavy fall that can terminate more than a career.

Within days, stuffed full of painkillers and bravery and jokingly telling everyone not to 'feel her left boob', she competed at Burghley, finishing third. Talk about getting back on the horse.

In between her regular Monday evening tennis mixed doubles, the gardening, the football runs and some cordon bleu cooking, she has been getting on with it so well that she reached the top of the world rankings earlier this year.

Has there ever been a more remarkable No 1 in any sport than this 50-year-old mother of two?

The daughter of a Royal Navy man-turned-verger, King grew up in Devon, where she still lives, in a television-free environment of cards being dealt and board games being played...almost to the death.

Making a splash: Star Appeal gallops through the water in Sydney

'I got so cross if I did not win,' King recalls. 'I would leave the room and slam the door.'

The family album contains a photograph of the most competitive girl ever to wield an egg and spoon.

King, who would seek out horses to be ridden until being given her own at the age of 12, remembers vividly her first Pony Club coach trip to the Badminton Horse Trials.

'Shiny horses and shiny riders. Everyone seemed so rich. How could people be so brave to ride so fast on huge horses over huge fences? From that day on, I was desperate to ride at Badminton.

'It happened in 1985. I finished seventh and was presented with golden spurs from The Queen. I returned to the village thinking I was so clever. I told one local how I had done to be met with the reply: Never mind you will do better next time.'

King was to do much better.

Victory at Badminton in 1992 (2000 brought another) started an Olympic sequence as yet unbroken and, with promising horse flesh in the training pipeline, likely to continue as long as body remains able and spirit stays willing.

'One Olympics seemed impossible. Six seems ridiculous. All these years doing sitting trots and going round in circles,' she says in a nod to the less-than-thrilling dressage element.

Jump to it: King will be gunning for Olympic gold once more next summer

'Competing in major events keeps me going. I would not be particularly interested just keeping horses at home. It is all about the competition. To be the best in the world, dare I say.

'You cannot have success on any horse. A good rider needs a good horse and a good horse needs a good rider.'

While the always enthusiastic King has loved the Olympic experience - 'chatting to Linford Christie at breakfast in the athletes village, studying physical shapes and trying to guess their sport' - there has been no shortage of disappointment.

Barcelona, Atlanta and Sydney all yielded nothing when medals were the expectation.

Athens produced an unexpected team silver.

'I went out as travelling reserve. I was not allowed in the Olympic village. King Solomon had to be kept in outside stabling. It was a funny feeling, keeping the horse fit, not thinking you were going to be needed. Then the day before the start of competition I received the call. It was a bit of a shock. I was already in holiday mode. But the horse was fantastic.'

Team bronze followed in Beijing, or rather Hong Kong.

A failure, really, in that Britain were fancied to win the gold medal. They usually are.

But 2011 will mark the 40th anniversary since Richard Meade and co last won team gold for GB.

'It is long overdue,' King says. 'And, of course, I am desperate to complete the set with a gold medal.'

As desperate as that little girl in the egg and spoon race. Which she won, by the way.

Mary King was crowned the 2011 HSBC FEI Classics Champion. For more information, got to www.fei.org/hsbc